the words that fall out of my pen when I step off the curb…

AUGUST 2013 POSTCARD POETRY FEST

These are just a few of the photos I used for my DIY postcards in my first ever rodeo! (ie. The annual “August Poetry Postcard Fest” that Paul E Nelson and Lana Ayers came up with in 2007 which, at that time involved 95 poets from North America and Europe taking part.)

The premise? Easy. Poets from around the world sign onto a list with a view of sending a postcard poem to 31 poets (1 per day) during August.

The keeper of the list this year (Brendan McBreen) did yeoman’s work as no less than a record 300+ poets signed on to take part. To avoid duplications or similar mishaps, the individual poets send to the 31 poets listed immediately below them on the list (with room for some variations, as it turns out, but those 31 are a must, so that no-one gets left out).

What a fun way to spend August! Nail-biting everyday, waiting to see what the mail brings; inspired to write tiny poems in tiny spaces on the cards themselves; wondrous postcards of all varieties from actual works of art, to very plain to antique to photographs and on and on; some even made stamps part of the creative process using old uncancelled stamps. (I confess I became one of those once I discovered a cache of these stamps in my house.)

A big part of the fun was chatting about the whole experience with like-minded folk on the FaceBook page created expressly for this purpose. Paul Nelson gave us lots of encouragement to begin with as well as information about poetry, modes and genres sometimes unrelated to August…it was an entertaining, evolving month.

Would I do it again? In a post-marked second…

NB – THE POSTCARDS/POEMS ARE ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES AND CAN BE REACHED WITH THE LINKS ON THE SIDE OF THIS POST (MOSTLY). FOR ANY THAT DON’T MAKE THIS LIST, THERE ARE ARROWS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POEMS THAT GUIDE THE READER TO THE OLDER POEMS AND CARDS…THANKS FOR COMING TO VIEW AND READ!